FOSSIL (BIRDS 287 
gemia, with which the Italian G. turfu is probably identical ; but 
more interesting than that are the very numerous relics of two 
species, the concomitants even now of the Reindeer, which were 
abundant in that country when this beast flourished there and have 
followed it in its northward retreat. There are the Willow-GRoUSE, 
Lagopus albus,}and the Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca—a single bone 
of the latter, found in the historic deposits of Kent’s Hole near 
Torquay, giving indication that a similar state of things once 
existed in our island, while yet another fact quite as suggestive is 
afforded by the recognition of many bones of the CAPERCALLY, 
Tetrao urogallus, from caves explored by the late Messrs. Backhouse 
in Teesdale, as well as from Kent’s Hole by the present writer.? 
It is not a little singular that remains of the species last men- 
tioned have also been found in another country which it now no 
longer inhabits and under circumstances very different; for the 
next ancient Birds’ bones that have to be mentioned are those from 
the kitchen-middens of Denmark, among which occur those of this 
bird, shewing the co-existence with it of pine-forests in that country, 
though on other evidence it is plain that such forests cannot have 
existed there for many centuries. Bones of the GARE-FOWL, Alca 
impennis, found in the same deposits perhaps do not prove more 
than that the surrounding seas, though cold, were free from ice in 
the summer-time. The Birds’ remains hitherto recovered from the 
ruins of the Swiss lake-dwellings are all of species which now occur 
more or less commonly in the same neighbourhoods, and are there- 
fore of comparatively little interest. 
On the other hand, the Fens of East Anglia have yielded proofs 
of a form now extinct not only in England but even in Northern 
Europe. ‘This is the Pelican, of which two humeri, one from 
Norfolk and the other most likely from the Isle of Ely, are pre- 
served in the Museums of Cambridge. Whether the species 
be identical with either of those now inhabiting the South of 
Europe, it was undoubtedly a true Pelecanus, and apparently only 
differed from P. onocrotalus by its larger size. The immature condi- 
tion of one of the specimens leads to the inference that the bird 
was a native of the locality. 
To sum up this brief survey of our present imperfect knowledge 
of Fossil Birds, it may suffice to state that nearly all the Plistocene 
species still survive, at least on continents, for the exceptions lie 
1 T am not aware of any difference between the bones of ZL. albus and L. 
scoticus. It may well be that those from the caves of Teesdale, and naturally 
ascribed to the iatter, may be those of the former, in which case the identity of 
conditions once obtaining in England and France could be more clearly made 
out ; but Reindeer remains are rare in this country.—A. N. 
2 A bone from the Forest-bed of Norfolk is provisionally referred to a young 
example of this species (Cat. Foss. B. Br. Mus. p. 133), 
